Tesco back in the black, Fresnillo gold production surges

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 60 points higher on Wednesday, extending its gains from the previous session.

Stocks to watch

Tesco broke back into the black with a £162m pre-tax profit that marked a turnaround from the previous year's record £6.3bn loss, also delivering the first annual volume growth in five years. The UK's largest supermarket generated a 0.9% increase in UK like-for-like sales in the fourth quarter, its first growth in three years, contributing to group LFL growth of 1.6% for the quarter.

WH Smith reported a jump in earnings on Wednesday, with profit across the retailer improving in the six months to 29 February. Group profit before tax improved 11% to £80m, from £72m, while diluted earnings per share were up 13% to 57.4p, from 50.8p.

Fresnillo said first quarter gold production was up 26.3% to 230,000 against the same period last year and up 6.5% when compared with the fourth quarter of 2015. This was mainly due to a higher speed of recovery at Herradura now steady state has been reached, and a higher speed of recovery at Noche Buena, the company said in a production update.

Newspaper round up

Oil prices reached a five-month high yesterday, exceeding $44 for the first time this year amid hopes that a Russian-brokered deal to freeze output by the world’s top producers could succeed. The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose by 71 cents to touch $44 after Russia’s Interfax news agency, quoting diplomatic sources in Doha, reported that Russia and Saudi Arabia, which together pump about a fifth of the world’s oil, had reached a tentative pact that could be finalised this weekend. – The Times

Amazon is in talks with British broadcasters to add their channel brands and programmes to its streaming service, as it gears up to use Jeremy Clarkson as the spearhead of an attack on the pay-TV market. The giant is attempting to adapt its American Streaming Partners Programme to the UK media market and make its Prime Instant Video service and Fire TV set-top box hardware into a more credible alternative to Sky and Virgin Media, and give it an edge over Netflix. – Telegraph

Nurofen’s manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser should be fined $6m for misleading consumers over a range of “targeted” pain products that cost twice as much as its standard painkillers despite having the same active ingredient and effect, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has found. In December the federal court found the British company Reckitt Benckiser, the manufacturer of the painkiller, had engaged in “misleading conduct” by representing that its Nurofen Specific Pain products targeted a type or area of pain despite being identical, and ordered they be removed from supermarket shelves within three months. – Telegraph

US close

US stocks ended Tuesday's session higher as a rally in oil prices boosted energy shares.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.94%, the S&P 500 gained 0.97% and the Nasdaq edged up 0.80%.

Oil prices jumped on hopes that global producers will agree to freeze output at a 17 April meeting in Doha, Qatar.